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High · 8.2 CVE-2026-18036 EUVD-2026-91317GHSA-frjj-v5w4-68pc

NTRU leaks private key information by reducing secret values with a non-constant-time integer division

Published Oct 2, 2026 · Updated Oct 2, 2026 · Assigned by bcorg

Description

In Bouncy Castle for Java before 1.86, NTRU reduced secret values with the % operator in three helpers whose reference implementations are deliberately division-free, so each reduction was carried out by an integer division whose latency depends on the secret operand. Polynomial.modQ divided by a variable divisor, which a compiler cannot strength-reduce to a multiply the way it can a constant one, so it emitted a division on every call including on the decapsulation path where the dividend derives from the private key; Polynomial.mod3 and NTRUSampling.mod3 divided the secret key polynomials f and g during key generation, the message polynomials r and m during encapsulation, and coefficients recovered during decapsulation. An attacker able to measure that timing can recover information about the NTRU private key. modQ now masks, which is exact because q is always a power of two, and mod3 uses the reference implementation's division-free fold and select; the results are unchanged.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Legion of the Bouncy Castle BC-JAVA 1.73 – < 1.86 1.86

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 bouncycastle 1.86-1 —
Debian 13 bouncycastle No fix yet —
Debian 12 bouncycastle No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 bouncycastle No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS bouncycastle No fix yet —
Show 5 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS bouncycastle No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS bouncycastle No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS bouncycastle No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS bouncycastle No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS bouncycastle No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES 15 SP7 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
SLES 15 SP6 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
SLES 15 SP5 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
SLES 15 SP4 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
Show 7 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES for SAP 16.0 bouncycastle 1.86-160000.1.1 SUSE-SU-2026:24461-1
SLES for SAP 15 SP6 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
SLES for SAP 15 SP5 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
SLES for SAP 15 SP4 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
SLES 16.0 bouncycastle 1.86-160000.1.1 SUSE-SU-2026:24461-1
SLE HPC 15 SP5 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
SLE HPC 15 SP4 bouncycastle 1.86-150200.3.41.1 SUSE-SU-2026:4797-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed bouncycastle 1.86-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:12090-1
openSUSE Leap 16.0 bouncycastle 1.86-160000.1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:22169-1

Wolfi

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Wolfi rolling gradle-8 8.14.6-r5 —
Wolfi rolling gradle-9 9.8.2-r3 —

Advisories 6

References